Sea ice in the Arctic covered only 12.0 million square kilometres. This was 580,000 square kilometres below the previous record low for the month of May set in 2004, and 1.39 million square kilometres below the 1981-2010 long-term average sea ice extent.

The average monthly sea ice extent for May 2016 was more than one million square kilometres below the average monthly extent seen in May 2012 - the same year that saw the most recent record-setting lowest September minimum summer sea ice extent. Sea ice extent in May was also diminishing "two to four weeks ahead" of what scientsits were observing in May 2012.

“Early retreat of sea ice in the Beaufort Sea and pulses of warm air entering the Arctic from eastern Siberia and northernmost Europe are in part driving below-average ice conditions,” according to the NSIDC website.

Record low extents for the months on January, February and April were also set so far in 2016.

"If loss of sea ice is driving changes in the jet stream, the jet stream is changing Greenland, and this, in turn, has an impact on the Arctic system as well as the climate. It's a system, it is strongly interconnected and we have to approach it as such."

"If loss of sea ice is driving changes in the jet stream, the jet stream is changing Greenland, and this, in turn, has an impact on the Arctic system as well as the climate. It's a system, it is strongly interconnected and we have to approach it as such."